This idea came to me as I pondered why most people are seemingly indifferent to flowers in 2019. I believe there is an unmistable dichotomy between the sad, aging carnations that you might find at say - a gas station - and the high pricetag arrangements found in a florist’s shop. The easiest, most reasonable in between option would be grocery store flowers - that is if their quality outpaces the gas station flowers, without costing what a florist charges.
So here is my plan. I’m going to buy flowers from four chain grocery stores in my area - Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Publix and Kroger - over the next few weeks. I will examine my findings based on the same criteria and the same $30 budget. Then I will create an example of what kind of arrangement can be done utilizing the same flowers. That may give you some ideas of what’s possible if you’re in a situation where one of these places is the only flower resource available to you.
Let’s do this!
First stop - Trader Joe’s
Frequency of restocking florals - daily and on Saturdays twice/day
Budget: $30
Actually spent: $24.98
Breakdown
Seasonal filler - 3 stems of green carnations (4 but realized one was broken once I got home) $2.99
Seasonal bouquet - 9 stems - variety of white and pink daisies and astromeria $5.99
Petite bouquet - 6 stems - 4 callalilies and 2 spray roses $3.99
Seeded Eucalyptus 4 stems $2.99
Silver Dollar Eucalyptus - 4 stems $2.99
Wax flower bunch - 4 stems $3.99
Because I was under budget, I probably could have gone back and bought some more greens, but I just kept moving instead.
Judgement criteria
Rankings: Bad // So-So // Good // Wow!
Cost- Wow!
Quality- Somewhere between Good // Wow!
Combined Value- Wow!
Selection- Somewhere between So-So // Good
Freak Factor- Good
Pros
OMG - the value. Seems like this is going to be hard to top. This was cheaper than the ’wholesale’ price I’ve paid at specialty flower markets. For example, a dozen spray roses cost $14.95 compared to the $4.99 you can pay (side note: I went back and purchased a dozen spray roses later - they weren’t available by the time I made this purchase).
They selection was pretty good. The factor that they offered greenery and individual flowers seems worth noting.
A couple of the pre-made bouquets had some beautiful focal flowers ... but I have no idea what they are.
Cons
The stems are short on some of the pre-made bouquets.
I don’t like that the available selection was primarily pre-made bouquets - a lot of the flower combinations were not to my taste. I found myself gravitating towards one or two flowers in their bouquets and not liking the rest. I couldn’t find a bouquet where I loved every choice. However, they did have a few individual bundles.
I was told the best time to come in is 8 am when the store first opens - they were out of roses by 5 pm, which is when I was there.
The variety was good, but not massive amounts of each thing - for example, there were 2-4 bundles of pink spray roses total. Once those were sold, there was no additional restock for the day. It would be difficult to do a large event using only these flowers if you have a color scheme you’re trying to stick to.
Some things were labeled generically - “assorted greens”, “linear focal flowers”- so as a beginner who doesn’t have a broad knowledge base of flower types yet, this was a disadvantage. I’m sure there is a pragmatic reason why they don’t go through the trouble of labeling each of them.
Verdict
I’m a mega fan. It may not be flower utopia, but it’s perfect for the every day flowers, special occasion flowers, and even a small-to-medium sized event depending on the volume needed and how flexible you are with colors and selection.